Electives

Any outpatient subspecialty rotations can also be taken as an elective rotation.

Advocacy

The overall focus of Community Pediatrics Advocacy Initiative is to prepare pediatric professionals to provide services that are effective and valued by children and families who have traditionally been underserved due to poverty, cultural barriers, and other factors. As part of this 4-week rotation, pediatric healthcare trainees will work closely with a community-based organization to identify a health issue that is important to that particular community.

Anesthesiology

The aim of this rotation is to provide the maximum exposure to all facets of clinical and didactic anesthesiology from neonates through teens and to permit comfort with sedation techniques and airway management.

Child Psychiatry

This rotation is a basic overview of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry which includes evaluating new patients, both individually and as part of a multidisciplinary team, in order to determine diagnosis and the most appropriate treatment plan.

Dermatology

This rotation will allow the residents to see many children with skin disorders, as well as serve to introduce and reinforce concepts unique to the care of children.

Genetics

The medical genetics rotation is designed to give an awareness of clinical and counseling approaches to genetic disorders and birth defects. Residents will attend the following clinics: general genetics, NF, metabolic, and PKU.

Infectious Disease

Develop an approach to the differential diagnosis of pediatric patients with infectious disease problems. These may be “official consults” or “interest consults.” These patients will be followed the entire month by the team.

International

The goal of this rotation is to gain perspective on the practice of medicine in a resource-limited setting and within a different cultural context. It is your responsibility to find a location, coordinate the elective with an on-site preceptor, complete the required University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics paperwork, obtain the necessary credentials, update immunizations, and arrange travel plans. You will be expected to maintain a patient contact log and procedure log during your rotation. It will also be expected that you share your experiences with your fellow residents via a noon conference presentation or other formal mechanism. Rotation is a minimum of 2 weeks and a maximum of 4 weeks.

Nephrology

The goal of this rotation is to gain an understanding of pediatric kidney disease and hypertension in both the inpatient and ambulatory setting and be able to effectively diagnose and treat common problems. Subjects to be covered will include fluid and electrolytes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis, nephrotic syndrome, acute and chronic renal failure, congenital anomalies of the urinary tract, UTI’s, dialysis and transplantation.

Ophthalmology

Outpatient clinic experiences; most of the time spent observing and assisting in evaluations of patients.

Orthopedics

The primary educational objective for this rotation is to expose the residents to the entire spectrum of general pediatric orthopedics as well as routine and complex pediatric spine surgery.

Otolaryngology

The resident can become a member of the pediatric otolaryngology service and participate in all of the resident activities during the month with an emphasis on spending time in the clinics.

Palliative Care

Palliative medicine combines excellence in interdisciplinary clinical care, education, advocacy and research to enhance quality of life and comfort to reduce suffering for children with life threatening diseases and for their families. During this rotation you will be exposed to a variety of specialists needed to provide supportive care for children who are at high risk of death.

Psychology

This rotation is a basic overview of Pediatric Psychology, which includes psychopharmacology clinic and wrap up meeting, outpatient mood disorder clinic and outpatient evaluation clinic.

Radiology

To observe and participate in the interpretation of various imaging modalities, as well as to receive various didactic lectures and to personally interact with the radiologists and staff. During this rotation you should learn anatomic and physiologic basis of pediatric disease as well as to understand the various imaging modalities and indications of each modality to evaluate specific pediatric diseases.

Research/Special

The research/special elective is designed to allow the resident to have dedicated time to work on a clinical or basic research project, or to further knowledge in an area of their choice. This includes learning about pediatric care in the context of a parental elective. In order for the time to be utilized to its fullest, the resident must have a faculty mentor and a project identified prior to beginning the rotation. The rotation is not designed for preparatory work, but for research to be performed in order to work toward the completion of the scholarly project.

Rheumatology

The primary goals of this rotation are to help the resident to: learn the presenting symptoms/signs of rheumatic disease in children; develop focused musculoskeletal examination skills; expand the differential diagnosis of arthritis/joint pain in children; and systematically construct a plan in the evaluation of a child with arthritis/joint pain. This service sees patients in both the outpatient and inpatient settings including inpatient consultations. Residents are responsible for participating in all clinics (which is the setting of primary emphasis during this rotation) with in-patient consults and rounds as time allows.

Sports Medicine

This rotation will: define the diagnosis and multidisciplinary approach to treatment of common injuries and illnesses seen in Sports Medicine; develop skills for taking Sports Medicine focused history and physicals; develop knowledge base for prescription of fitness programs, for health maintenance and for specific diseases (eg asthma, hypertension, diabetes); develop knowledge based in basic sciences related to Sports Medicine; allow opportunities to work with the sports physical therapists and athletic trainers to learn specific rehabilitation programs for common musculoskeletal injuries and the appropriate use of treatment modalities (eg ultrasound, ice massage, iontophoresis).

Surgery

The goal of this elective is to expose the resident to the full range of clinical experiences within pediatric surgery inpatient and clinics. The resident will become familiar and comfortable in the evaluation, stabilization, and management of pre-operative, post-operative, and trauma patients. The resident will also become knowledgeable in the indications for emergent, urgent, and elective referral of patients to a pediatric surgeon, and in appropriate pain management of a surgical patient.

Teaching/Leadership

The overall goal of this rotation is to gain a deeper understanding of the concepts of medical education: evaluation theory, presentation skills, adult learning theory. It will be expected that a medical education related project resulting in a usable product (on-line module, evaluation form, presentation, paper) will be completed during the month.